Studebaker and Tucker

[Tuckerfan1053]

I found an interesting interview with former Studebaker automotive designer, Bob Bourke. He grew up not too far from where the Dodge plant would later be built and worked with some of the same folks who'd go on to design the Tucker '48, and, it appears that the Tucker had a great deal of influence on Studebaker.

That particular item was just one of many, and I really can't say who it was. But we had directives from time to time. I remember how that transparent spinner started out. Somebody thought it would be neat to have a light behind it, and I talked them out of that, and we painted it with opaque silver, because they were ready for production. It would have been really crazy. I think that was brought about by the fact that somebody was impressed with the Tucker or a Cyclops eye -- a single headlight on a locomotive.

It sure was, right. We had done work on a symbolic '47 and, in turn, had a grille on the back end of it. I had a lot of sketches where the glass curved around in the back. So we built a wood model of this early pre-'47 prototype, which had some of the characteristics of the production car, albeit they were somewhat different. It didn't have a fender, as such, on the rear end. It had detail around the back, and it had a grille across the back, and the car, actually, was being considered for a rear engine automobile.

And I think that the woman he's talking about worked for Tucker doing the interiors.

It was Gordon Buehrig or Exner who hired Audrey Moore [Hodges]. She was single at the time.

Lot of interesting stories, like how he and a few others designed what would become the 49 Ford while all still working for Studebaker, and he apparently worked with many of the top names in the automotive industry.

[Larry Clark]

You may enjoy reading a long, informative interview with Audrey Moore Hodges where she talks about her life work, including working with at Tucker, that can be found at: http://www.autolife.umd.umich.edu/Desig ... erview.htm

In it, she says the following about Bob Burke:

Then they brought in a fellow named Bob Bourke.

Q: Where did he come from?

A: I don't recall where he came from. All I know is, all of sudden, there he was. He was pretty difficult to deal with. He was not the easiest person to work for.

Q: Was he working under Gordon Buehrig, or had he left by this time?

A: He worked under Gordon for a very short while, and I don't think he and Gordon got along too well. Then, the next thing I knew, Gordon was gone, and Bourke was head of it.

Q: Still under Loewy?

A: Yes, still under Loewy. It continued that way until such time as

the contract terminated.

Q: What year was that?

A: That was late '45 or '46.

Burke might not have been easy to work with but he was a good designer.

Larry